FOUND GIRL & LANGUAGE!--But Lost You? DFO 1055 30/11/76
--By Father David
1. PTL! TYJ! THIS IS A DREAM I HAD THE MORNING OF NOVEMBER 30th, 1976. I still don't know what it means but I'll just tell it to you anyhow because I still remember it pretty clearly & it might have some message or meaning!
2. WE WERE DRIVING SOUTH ON THIS BIG SUPER HIGHWAY IN TEXAS & we came to a place where I wasn't sure about the route, where the route divided, & I remembered from experience before that we were supposed to take a different highway at this point. So I pulled off the highway at one of the turnoffs to go back to a station that I'd seen on the service road. I think it was a Texaco station.
3. I HAD TO DRIVE BACK A SHORT DISTANCE TO THE STATION at a crossroad that I guess ran under the highway, to get a map. Later I realised I already had a map up under the sun visor but I'd forgotten about it, but I figured the Lord must have let it happen for some reason because of what happened later.
4. THERE WAS A TYPICAL OLD TEXAN RUNNING THIS FILLING STATION who looked like Gonzalo, in fact maybe it was Gonzalo, I don't know! But anyway, I got some gas & got a map & started talking with him a little & there were some teenagers standing around & he offered us a cold drink, a Coke or something, & he got them out of this old Coke box that I remember they used to have when I was a kid.
5. IT HAD A RECORD PLAYER & A TURNTABLE ON TOP with a lid for playing the old 72 speed records. The camshaft was still there, the hub of the turntable, but the turntable was gone; the needle arm was gone too & of course it wasn't in operation. I said, "Well, that old box is as old as I am! I can remember they had those when I was a kid!" "Yeah, but I've got better music than that now," & he switched on some kind of music that he had there at the station & it was really good music.
6. THEN HE SAID, "IT'S GETTING SO LATE NOW, WHY GO NOW TONIGHT? Why don't you just pull over there at that old hotel over there, it's old but it's nice, & spend the night & then you can go on fresh in the morning!" So we discussed it & decided to do that. So we drove under the highway on the crossroad to other side to this big about four-story, very old-fashioned, typical old Texas hotel, it looked like it was 100 years old! We went in & got a room, went up on the rickety old elevator & found our room.
7. THE NEXT THING, I DON'T REMEMBER WHERE I UNDRESSED & PUT MY CLOTHES, but it was in the room near the bathroom. It was one of these places you have the community bathroom, great big old bathroom. And I went in the bathroom & took a bath, bathroom off the hall that everybody uses.
8. I GOT OUT OF THE BATH & I COULDN'T REMEMBER WHERE I PUT MY CLOTHES, they weren't there, it seemed, in the bathroom, & my shoes weren't there that I usually use as slippers when I'm on the road travelling, & I figured, well, I must have somehow put them in the room as I often used to do for security.
9. I USED TO LEAVE MY CLOTHES IN THE ROOM & JUST WEAR MY SHOES FOR SLIPPERS & put a towel around me & carry the key with me to go to the community bathroom to take a bath in these cheap old hotels. But I couldn't understand why I couldn't find my shoes, I always had shoes, but somebody else's shoes were there! I figured, well, some body got their shoes mixed up with mine & left theirs, some kind of rubber slippers. And I thought, "Well, I'll just have to use these!" And I got them & left the bathroom into the hall.
10. THE HALL OPENED TOWARD THE RIGHT INTO A LARGE LOBBY, upstairs like a second floor lobby which they often used to have in those old hotels. Downstairs was a kind of a cold formal lobby with a desk & all that, but upstairs they'd have sort of a lounge with easy chairs around for the guests to sit up there & visit with each other in greater privacy.
11. SOME PEOPLE WERE SITTING ON THIS SOFA WITH ITS BACK TOWARD ME; there were two middle-aged ladies on each end & then there was this very pretty girl sitting in the middle between them who seemed like she was having some kind of problem, I don't recall quite exactly how it was, but it was like she was having some kind of mental problem from fear & almost like she'd had a fit & the women were sort of holding her, trying to quiet her.
12. FOR SOME REASON--I DON'T KNOW WHY, I MUST HAVE FORGOTTEN MY TOWEL OR SOMETHING--BUT I WAS STARK NAKED! And I walked up behind the couch right behind the girl, but the back of the sofa was just high enough as to cover my pubic area. I remember I kept thinking, "Well, I've got to stay right behind the couch so nobody will see I'm naked, at least they won't see I'm totally naked, & talk to this poor girl that's having these problems!"
13. SO I TALKED TO HER & TALKED TO HER ABOUT THE LORD, HOW HE COULD DELIVER HER FROM FEAR, bondage, & she didn't have to worry. And right away she began to respond & brighten up & look at me with such looks of love & thanks & gratitude, looking back over her shoulder & talking to me over the back of the couch. She held my hand & gripped it like she was just hanging on for dear life!
14. WE TALKED & TALKED & I TRIED TO SOOTHE HER TROUBLED FEARS & her distraught, mind, talking about the Lord & Scriptures & love & it seemed like she just almost immediately fell in love with me & she kept hanging on to my hand & looking at me with such love.
15. UNTIL FINALLY THIS BIG BRUISER, one of these big tough Texas cowboys, great big husky guy with a great big beer belly, looked like he was about 50 or 55, great big bully type, came into the door of the room on the far side speaking angrily & trying to order her to come to him.
16. SHE JUST SHOOK HER HEAD & SMILED & SAID, "NO!" SHE WASN'T IN THAT BONDAGE ANYMORE.--And he was just furious because she wouldn't go with him! I don't know whether it was supposed to be her husband or boyfriend or what, but it's as though he'd had some kind of a hold over her & now his spell was broken & she was no longer in bondage to him anymore & was freed.
17. SO SHE JUST LOOKED AT ME SO SWEETLY WITH LOOKS OF LOVE & SO THANKFUL. And the women sitting with her too seemed to be thankful that she was delivered from this bruiser, this brute, a real beast! And so he stalked off mad. Then she got up while I was watching her & she calmly climbed through the window of the hotel, out the window of the hotel, out the window to a ledge outside the window & just stood there sort of balanced on the edge, & I was so scared for a minute she was going to fall off!
18. BUT IT SEEMED LIKE SHE HAD BEEN APPARENTLY SOME KIND OF A PERFORMER or balancing acts or something that did this sort of thing for her living, like in a circus, & this guy had been her master. And I called her, I knew her name by this time but I just can't remember it, it seemed like it was Linda. I think it was Linda, that's a very common Texas name!
19. I SAID, "NO, NO, LINDA, YOU MUSTN'T STAND THERE! That's dangerous, you might fall!" She said, "Oh, I'm not afraid anymore, I'm not afraid!" I said, "Yes, but you don't need to do that anymore, you don't have to do that anymore! You'd better come back in where it's safer. And she was just standing out there like she was enjoying her freedom & her liberty & her new-found faith & freedom from fear.
20. I SAID, "BUT YOU MUSTN'T JUST STAND OUT THERE & TAKE CHANCES LIKE THAT ANYMORE! You don't have to do that anymore, you'd better come back in." And I took her by the hand & was trying to persuade her to come back in. She was just like she was standing out there enjoying the view.
21. THERE WAS SOMEONE ELSE OUT THERE CROUCHED ON THE LEDGE BESIDE HER, like some old cowboy or something, I don't know what he was there for, he didn't seem to be paying any attention to her. She just stood out there like a little fairy perched on the edge of this big wide ledge that ran around the outside of the building like so often on some of those old buildings.
22. I GUESS I MUST HAVE PERSUADED HER TO COME IN because I remember that we were leaving & we were out beside the highway, I guess we were going to go get in our car. There was this big big wall, huge wall, like a big tall retaining wall or like the wall along the earthfill of the underpass or something, like she'd come around through the underpass to follow us as far as she could just to tell us goodbye. She came through this aperture in the wall & we were waving goodbye to her.
23. I SAID, "REMEMBER, LINDA, YOU'RE FREE NOW, YOU'RE NOT BOUND ANYMORE! You're totally free to be happy & you're completely delivered." And she was saying, "Oh yes, I know, I'm so happy & I'm so free! Thank you so much! But I wish you'd stay, I wish you could stay with me, please stay," & she was sort of feeling a little bad because we were leaving. I said, "I'm awfully sorry, I wish I could stay you but there are others who need to be freed too & I must go & help them to be free," & we said goodbye & that seemed to be the end of my dream!
24. I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA EXACTLY WHAT ALL THAT MEANS, we're not in Texas anymore dealing with those old cowboys, so I don't see how it could possibly be literal, so it must be symbolic. Again it must be symbolic of the way we've set the youth free & that apparently there are still some over there even in the States who are in bondage to the System in bondage to those fiends & devils over there, who still need to be freed.
25. IT WAS AS THOUGH THE LORD HAD STOPPED US AT THAT PARTICULAR POINT ON THE HIGHWAY, we thought to get a map, but it turned out to liberate someone who needed our help & we helped them. All those other little peculiar details in the dream, why I came out of the bathroom naked, I don't know, unless that was to show that I was totally free & not worried about being naked.
26. NUDITY IS A SIGN OF FREEDOM, TOTAL FREEDOM FROM THE BONDAGE & CONVENTION OF CLOTHING, & for this reason it perhaps was symbolic to show her that I was free & she could be free. And as I talked to her & prayed for her, she promptly fell in love with me & wanted to be with me.
27. GOING OUT THE WINDOW WAS JUST ALMOST LIKE A SIGN THAT SHE WAS LIBERATED, she was free from her fears & from that mean old cowboy that was dominating her, symbolic, no doubt, of the System himself. And then of course at the last, the fact that she came through this big wall seemed to mean to me that she was really out in the open now & completely freed & didn't have to worry. She was alone, to, she didn't have to have those women taking care of her.
28. WE HAD SET HER FREE & SHE WAS HAPPY NOW, LIBERATED IN THE LORD & really didn't need us anymore. As much s we would have liked to have stayed & enjoyed her fellowship, we had to go. As Jesus said, "I needs must go into other cities also, for I have other sheep which are not of this fold." (Jn.10:16.)
29. WE NEED TO KEEP MOVING AS WE SPREAD THE MESSAGE. Once we have delivered our souls in one city, one area, we're to pass on to other areas that have not yet heart at all. Once we have preached the message & freed the captives of that area we're to go on & free others too.
30. I WAS JUST READING THE STATS YESTERDAY FROM NORTH AMERICA, the United States, & I was thinking how they were looking a little bit sad, not getting very many converts, not to many disciples joining, & it looked a little discouraging that things were not progressing too well in North America now since most of us have evacuated, 90% of us have left North America, only 10% of our population is still there, about 600 people. (That was in 1976.)
31. EVEN THOSE 600-&-SOME SEEM TO BE A LITTLE DISCOURAGED because the North Americans are now so unresponsive, many of them are very unresponsive, they're not getting out as much lit as they used to & they're not winning as many souls, they're not gaining as may disciples, & even on the per person ratio they are way way below the World average in response there.
32. AND I WAS TELLING MARIA THEN, WELL, THEIR SUPERVISORS SHOULDN'T THINK TOO HARDLY OF THIS BECAUSE IT'S A REAPED FIELD. We've already reaped the harvest there long ago & now they're just gleaning. And that was symbolic also in the dream, I stopped just to free one poor dear soul, nobody else there, not the teenagers that were at the filling station or the kindly old cowboy that ran it or the elderly women in the hotel or anybody like that, but just this one girl that we stopped and liberated, but it was worth it all!
33. SO WE CAN'T ALWAYS COUNT OUR SUCCESS BY NUMBERS. It is one indication, but to God just one soul is worth it all, just to free one poor bound soul, one poor tormented spirit from the bondage of Satan. It was such a satisfaction to have liberated that dear sweet girl & freed her & set her free.
34. IT WAS WORTH IT ALL TO STOP OVER, EVEN OVERNIGHT, & ALL THE EXTRA TROUBLE, JUST TO SET THAT ONE PERSON FREE, no doubt symbolic of some of the young people who are still there in the United States & Canada & who still need release & freedom from the bondage of the Enemy & who still need our help. Even if they're gleaned only one by one, just a very very few, they're still worth it all to you who are still there in the United States & Canada.
35. DON'T GET DISCOURAGED IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO LEAVE, every one who can has been leaving, at least tried, & you who are still there are there we hope only because you couldn't leave or perhaps you have a large family & a number of children & you have financial problems or there may be some reason, family connection or job or something, why you can't leave!
36. THOSE WHO ARE ALREADY LIVING IN COLONIES THERE, we don't know just why, what your reasons are for staying, but it must be that you're staying there to try to glean the last little bits of the harvest & to help those young people who are still there & still not free. Even though they're not many & it sure knocks down your stats, at least you are helping a few that need your help.
37. SO TAKE HEART & BE ENCOURAGED THAT YOUR LABOURS OF LOVE ARE NOT IN VAIN, & although your stats may be down & you're not accomplishing as much as you used to, even per person, not getting as many converts, you're not getting as many disciples, still those whom you are getting desperately need your help & you're there to help them, so thank the Lord for that!
38. JUST KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE LORD & KEEP PRAYING & DOING YOUR BEST TO TRY TO WIN THE FEW THAT ARE STILL LEFT who are still responsive & still need help, the few precious souls like that poor dear girl whom I set free & liberated from whatever kind of terrible fear & bondage she was in! It was worth it all, it was worth stopping on our way!
39. MAYBE YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY OUT! We were on our way South, already to Texas, maybe we were on our way down South to Mexico as you should be on your way out if you can be. Latin America needs your help right now, they need a lot of help & personnel & you ought to be moving South into those needy nations to the South of you. It's not far, you can go if you pray & ask God to give you the faith & the funds, & the Lord can help you go further where you can be of greater help to others.
40. SOME OF YOU PROBABLY FEAR THAT YOU CAN'T LEARN A LANGUAGE. Well, if you can learn a new language my age, I'm sure any of you can learn a language if you'll just go down there & live with the people long enough. You'll pick it up & you'll learn enough to get by, maybe have a simple childish version of the language like a little child or some of the old foreigners that you're accustomed to right there in America who come from strange countries & learn American very simply & childlike with a lot of mistakes, but you can understand them!
41. I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS A CHILD THERE WERE SO MANY FOREIGNERS, new immigrants coming into the country & very few of them could speak good English, they were all learning. But by living with us & hearing us & learning, they learned to speak English. And you can do the same when you go to a foreign country.
42. YOU CAN GO & LIVE WITH THE PEOPLE & LEARN THEIR LANGUAGE and just your being there even tells them that you love them. You've left your own native land, you've forsaken all & you've followed Jesus to go to their country, a strange country, stranger in a strange land with a strange language & you're trying hard to learn its ways & customs & its language. And the people appreciate that, they understand that you've really made a sacrifice to come!
43. AND OF COURSE MOST OF THOSE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES, ALL BUT BRAZIL, SPEAK SPANISH, which is a very simple language to learn. It's one of the simplest there is & one of the easiest to learn & one of the most beautiful languages. It has the most simple rules of pronunciation of almost any language.
44. WHEN I USED TO TRAVEL IN THOSE COUNTRIES YEARS AGO I used to tell people when I came home later in my classes that I could teach them to speak Spanish in one hour! And that was a shocker, they didn't believe me! But the rules of pronunciation of Spanish are so simple & so easy & so standard & constant that it's true.
45. I COULD TEACH YOU TO SPEAK OR AT LEAST READ SPANISH IN ONE HOUR! You might not know what you're reading or the meaning of the words, but at least you could pronounce them, because the pronunciation of Spanish is so easy & simple. The pronunciation of all of the letters are almost always the same very seldom change, & their standard rules of accent very seldom vary.
46. I USUALLY START PEOPLE OFF JUST WITH THE ALPHABET, at least used to in my classes in Miami & California, & teach them how to pronounce each letter of the alphabet in Spanish. Then after they had learned the sound & pronunciation of each letter, then you can teach them how to pronounce whole words & on which syllable the accent is & one which syllable the accent falls normally unless there's some change.
47. IN SPANISH IT IS ALWAYS INDICATED BY AN ACCENT MARK IF THERE'S ANY CHANGE from the standard pronunciation, it's indicated by an accent mark over a different syllable. Normally the accent is always on the certain syllables with very rare exceptions, & these exceptions are always indicated by an accent mark over a different syllable.
48. THIS MAKES THE LEARNING & PRONUNCIATION, READING & EVEN THE SPEAKING OF SPANISH VERY EASY & very simple so that you can then take a little Spanish-English dictionary with you & even if you know nothing about the grammar & you don't know all the verb tenses & conjugations, you can at least read the word out of your dictionary to them & give some idea of what you want or what you need or what you're trying to say just by reading them these words out of the dictionary.
49. YOU CAN LEARN TO GET BY AS I DID YEARS AGO IN MEXICO & CUBA, etc., just by taking along a little pocket dictionary & go to the store & ask them difference words for things you need; or in the restaurant you look up the words on the menu & find out what they are & then you tell them that's what you want, etc.
50. YOU CAN EVEN JUST LEARN THE SIMPLE LITTLE PRESENT TENSE OF SOME OF THE SIMPLER WORDS, THE SIMPLE VERBS. It's a very easy language to learn & the present tense is fairly constant with the regular verbs. You don't have to go into all the irregular verbs & all the fancy conjugations & all the other complicated things that you'd have to get into if you really want to speak a language well.
51. YOU CAN JUST SPEAK SIMPLY LIKE A LITTLE CHILD OR LIKE A FOREIGNER, & you can even speak it all in the present tense if you have to; they can still get the point of what you mean if you try to explain it to them. I went around all Mexico & Cuba & whatnot speaking all in the present tense because I didn't know the past tense or the future tense or the perfect tenses or anything.
52. I WENT AROUND EVERYWHERE SPEAKING IN THE PRESENT TENSE & THE SIMPLEST REGULAR VERBS which didn't vary & the simple little "to be" verb & speaking simple little things like "I am", "you are", "he, she or it is", "we are", "you are", "they are" & all of these simple "to be" conjugations. If you learn the conjugation of the one or two "to be" forms in the present tense, then it's very simple to put a few little words together & make a sentence.
53. I REMEMBER I USED THE WORD "NECESSARY" A GREAT DEAL IN SPANISH, "necessario," to indicate what I wanted. "Yo necessito so-&-so." "I need so-&-so," & I did it all in the present tense. I really overworked that word "I need" or "it's necessary" or "yo quiero", "I want", or "I need", "Yo necessito." That is really a great word to use because most of what you need to tell people's something you want or something you need or something you want to do. And if you put a few other words about what you want to do, they can finally figure out what you're trying to say!
54. SO REALLY I CAN TEACH YOU TO READ SPANISH IN ONE HOUR, & from there on it's merely a matter of learning a few simple verbs & regular conjugations, which is usually mostly much the same--the simple verbs ending in "ar" & then the ones that end in "er" & "ir," etc.--then it's merely a matter of building up your vocabulary.
55. AND OF COURSE THE QUICKEST WAY YOU BUILD UP YOUR VOCABULARY IS LOOKING UP IN THE DICTIONARY ALL THE TIME THE WORD THAT YOU WANT in English & finding the Spanish equivalent. Like when you're in a restaurant & you want a ham sandwich, well, you look up the word "ham" & then you look up the word "sandwich" & you find out what it is! You want a ham & cheese sandwich, you find out a sandwich is a bocadillo, ham is jamon & cheese is queso & you tell them you want a "bocadillo de jamon y queso."
56. SO IT'S VERY SIMPLE JUST LIKE TWO & TWO MAKES FOUR! You just keep looking up the words & gradually you build up a vocabulary as you remember what these words are, their equivalent in whatever language you're learning--especially Spanish which is such a simple language & there are so many countries in the World that speak Spanish.
57. DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE MORE COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD THAT SPEAK SPANISH THAN ANY OTHER LANGUAGE? Not more people, but more countries speak Spanish than any other language in the World, mostly because there are so many of those little Latin American countries, of course. All the Latin American countries except Brazil speak Spanish.
58. BRAZIL, OF COURSE, SPEAKS PORTUGUESE, OR BRAZILIAN, which is a very strange language indeed! It's kind of a mixture of Spanish, French, German & a potpourri of a little bit of everything thrown in. I don't know where they ever got that language, but anyhow, if ever you hear a language on the radio that sounds a little bit like French & a little like German & a little bit like Russian & a little bit like Spanish & you can't tell which one it is, it's for sure usually Portuguese or Brazilian!
59. IT'S A LITTLE BIT DIFFICULT TO LEARN, TOO, but it's similar enough & has enough Spanish words in it, believe it or not, that if you know Spanish you can even get by in Brazil or in Portugal with the words that are the same, or nearly the same in both Spanish & in Portuguese or Brazilian.
60. SO EVEN IN BRAZIL & PORTUGAL YOU CAN MAKE YOURSELF UNDERSTOOD IF YOU KNOW SPANISH, at least they can finally figure out what you're trying to say if you way it enough different ways with enough different words, you're bound to hit some that are the same in Brazilian.
61. JUST LIKE THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ARABIC & HEBREW. There are enough similar words that are the same in both Arabic & Hebrew, as one Jew told me in Israel one day, that if a little Arab child got lost in Jerusalem or in a Jewish town he would be able to make his needs known, even a little child, because there are enough simple words that are the same in both languages. That's somewhat the similarity between Spanish & Brazilian or Portuguese. Even in those countries you could make yourself understood, if necessary, even in Spanish.
62. SO OF COURSE SPANISH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE TO LEARN because it's not only spoken in almost all the countries of South America, Central America, Caribbean, but it's also spoken in the Philippines--not as much in the Philippines, I understand, now as English.
63. WHEN I WAS A BOY, MOST OF THE FILIPINOS SPOKE SPANISH but they're getting away from that since the Philippines have been more or less an American colony for a good many years. Although America gave them their freedom, America still dominates them financially & culturally & it still has very strong ties with the United States. Therefore the Filipino young people, I understand, today mostly speak English as well as their native tongue Tagalog, instead of the language of their former conquerors, the Spanish.
64. SO IN THE PHILIPPINES YOU CAN EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH OR SPANISH. And there are many islands of the sea that still speak Spanish, former Spanish possessions, & of course there's also Spain. Even in some of the former Spanish possessions in North Africa Spanish is still understood.
65. SO YOU HAVE A TREMENDOUS VARIETY & CHOICE OF FIELDS in all kinds of climates who speak Spanish, as well as a tremendous variety of fields in all kinds of climates who speak English! Many of the islands of the South Pacific speak English, the Philippines speak English, & many of the countries of Africa which were former British colonies still speak English, you can talk to them in English. The one unifying language of all India spoken by all those with any education at all is English!
66. SO OF COURSE THE MOST INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE IN THE WORLD TODAY IS ENGLISH & spoken by most educated people throughout the World regardless of their native tongue, & you can make yourself understood in English almost everywhere in the World except in a few of the more backward areas, or a few places where they don't want to speak English--like the train station man I ran into back in the boonies of France!
67. I WAS TRYING TO GET SOME INFORMATION OUT OF HIM, I tried English, then I tried Spanish, & he just was like a stone wall sitting there glowering at me with a scowl on his face. Finally after I'd gone through all these contortions and trying so hard to make myself understood, he said in a very clear crisp cold blunt English, "Why don't you learn French!"
68. SO THERE ARE PLACES WHERE THEY KNOW ENGLISH but they're so mad at England & so mad at the Americans they don't even want to speak it & they hate people who come around insisting on speaking their own language, Americans especially, & won't make even any attempt to learn the local native language like French.
69. SO IT'S NOT ALL THAT HARD TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE. You may not speak it beautifully or perfectly & probably never know it as well as they do, but you can speak it like a little child, at least, & make your simple little wants & needs known.
70. AND REMEMBER, FOR THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF A CHILD'S LIFE, HE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO SPEAK ANY LANGUAGE, & yet is able to make all of his wants & needs known & make himself understood without knowing one single word of any language at all! That is one of the miracles of God's creations, by little sounds & grunts & motions & everything the little child can make himself understood, what he needs & what he wants & point to things & make all kinds of funny little sounds.
71. WE FOUND WITH OUR OWN LITTLE BOY WHO IS LESS THAN TWO YEARS OLD, he's beginning to talk now & says a lot of words, but he also understands almost everything you say to him. He has a vocabulary of hundreds of words in two languages--hundreds of words in each language that he understands when you speak them to him, although he's not yet speaking them himself much.
72. HE'S GETTING QUITE TALKATIVE & SAYING WORDS & PUTTING LITTLE SENTENCES TOGETHER & is really learning although he's not yet two. He understands everything you say to him in either of the languages, it's amazing! When our friends talk to him in the native language of the land, he just understands everything they say because our Family here speaks both languages, & our helpers are natives who speak mostly only the native tongue & they speak to him in their tongue all the time & he understands them.
73. WE TRY TO SPEAK TO HIM IN ENGLISH ALL THE TIME so he'll learn English, so he understands that. And a lot of times when we're out in the city with him or out in the town or the village where there are others, when he's amongst the natives, then we frequently speak to him in he native tongue & he understands it perfectly, everything we say to him, & does what we tell him to do & so on, & we can ask him questions what he wants & this & that & the other in either language & he understands it all!
74. WELL, IF A LITTLE CHILD THAT'S NOT EVEN TWO-YEARS-OLD YET CAN HAVE LEARNED TWO LANGUAGES in less than two years, you, a grown up intelligent intellectual adult should be able to go to a foreign country & learn their language, or at least the simple basics of their language within much less time.
75. AS MARIA IS JUST SUGGESTING, DAVIDITO MAY GET SOME OF IT IN THE SPIRIT. Well, you can pray that you can get it in the Spirit too, & maybe God can give you the gift of interpretation. I think I get a lot of what they're saying when they talk so fast to me sort of in the Spirit. Although I can't understand all the words they're rattling off, I kind of understand what they're meaning & what they're trying to say even though I don't understand it all exactly in their language. So you can ask the Lord for the gift of interpretation, you can ask Him to help you understand it in the Spirit.
76. THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF LIVING IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY & UNDERSTANDING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE is not, as we have found, speaking it. It's very easy for me to speak my simple foreign language, I can rattle off all the simple little words like a little child. But like a little child trying to listen to grown-ups in a deep technical conversation, trying to understand them when they rattle it off to me is a different story!
77. THEN SOMETIMES I NEED HELP OR I HAVE TO GET THEM TO SLOW DOWN & say, "Now wait a minute, one word at a time, please, very slowly and please use simple words that I can understand." And some of them do it very well, they'll slow down & talk to me like a little child & I understand them like a little child.
78. BUT DON'T BE ASHAMED OF BECOMING A LITTLE CHILD! Jesus said, "except you become as a little child you'll not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!" So don't be afraid if they laugh at your broken foreign tongue, whatever it may be. As I've often said, I cheer up a lot of people with my foreign language because they're always laughing at me the way I speak it, the words I say or the way I pronounce it--but they understand what I mean! So what if you make funny mistakes & they laugh, at least they really appreciate the fact that you're trying to learn their language & you are speaking it!
79. SO MAYBE YOU 600-&-SOME WHO ARE STILL LEFT IN THE UNITED STATES & CANADA, maybe you just thought, well, it could be impossible for you to learn a foreign language, so you just gave up before you even started. Well, let me tell you, all you have to do is go down & live in one of those foreign countries & you will learn their language real fast, you'll learn it almost by absorption, you'll just learn it by hearing. You'll learn it just by living with them & having to learn it!
80. AS I USED TO OFTEN SAY, THE WAY I LEARNED THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE that I know is that I went into those countries & I had to learn it; I had to learn it to live, to eat, to drink, to sleep & to love! So you can learn it if you try, don't worry about it! Just go down there & start & get yourself a little dictionary first of all, a little English to that other language dictionary & then lean the pronunciation.
81. YOU NEED A DICTIONARY & YOU NEED TO LEARN THE RULES OF PRONUNCIATION which usually are right in the front of the dictionary, how to pronounce each letter, character, & where to put the accent on multiple syllable words, then you're off & away because then you can read the words & pronounce them, even if you don't know what they mean. But then at least when you look up the equivalent in your dictionary you'll know how to read & pronounce the word out of the dictionary so that the people can understand what you're trying to say or what you want.
82. THEN OF COURSE BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE UNITED STATES OR CANADA it's a good idea if you buy a simple little grammar book. Some of these books like Spanish Made Easy & things like that are very good books to buy because they have the simple grammar, pronunciation, & a short Spanish-English dictionary in the back. It's got the whole thing in one book, some of those paperback editions, very cheap, & if you start working on it, you'll learn! (Refer to simple basic Spanish course in L.A. Handbook Magazine.)
83. WHEN YOU LIVE WITH THE PEOPLE YOU'LL LEARN HOW TO PRONOUNCE IT! If you even start listening to Spanish stations on the radio, you'll soon sort of get the rhythm & be familiarised with the sound of the language & the pronunciation of the words & letters.
84. I THINK THAT'S ONE REASON THAT I PICKED UP SPANISH SO QUICKLY & EASILY is because for years when I was just a little boy building radios in Miami I used to listen to all those Spanish stations down & Mexico & Cuba & South America because I like Spanish music.
85. I WAS ALSO A TYPICAL RADIO BUFF TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT STATION I WAS GETTING & FROM WHAT COUNTRY. I'd listen carefully to the announcements, the station breaks & identifications to try to figure out what country, what city I was listening to, & I could usually figure it out. They'd say it in their language & it was similar enough to the way we pronounce it in English that I could usually figure out what city, at least, that I was listening to. They'd give their call letters & the city, & that way I'd figure it out. Whether it was Quito, Ecuador or Havana, Cuba, it was close enough to the English that I could understand what city it was!
86. SO JUST LISTEN TO SPANISH, & IT'S A GREAT HELP! You sort of absorb the rhythm & the sound of the language & familiarise yourself with it subconsciously even, if not consciously. I used to go to sleep night after night listening to my little radio with my headphones on. I'd wake up in the morning & I still had the headphones on & the station would take me up when it came back on the air at six or seven o'clock in the morning!
87. I MUST HAVE ABSORBED A LOT OF THAT SLEEP TEACHING in my sleep to where when I travelled to the Spanish countries, although I didn't know much Spanish & I didn't know my verbs or conjugations or grammar, they used to compliment my pronunciation, "Oh, muy Espanol!" They used to say that I really pronounced the language very well--I suppose at least in comparison to some of those dumb Texans who went down there pushing their way around with their dollars & their pushy American ways & saying things crazy like "Bu-nus Di-as A'migo," or crazy things like that that were really out of the way!
88. SO ANYWAY, IF YOU JUST LEARN THE SIMPLE RULES OF PRONUNCIATION & the various letters & how they're pronounced & then how most of the words are accented, you'll be able to read Spanish in an hour & read it out of your dictionary & let them know what you want, etc.
89. SO FOR YOU POOR FOLKS WHO ARE STILL LEFT IN THE UNITED STATES OR CANADA who are afraid to leave because you're afraid you can't speak the language or you could never learn, I suggest you either go to one of the many many countries that speak & understand English throughout the World, or try one of the many little countries & big countries too that speak Spanish, all the way from Spain to some little tiny islands in the Caribbean who speak Spanish, a very simple language to learn, very easy. And if you go down there & live with them you'll soon learn it.
90. I WOULDN'T SUGGEST YOU TRY TO PIONEER SOME COUNTRY ALL BY YOURSELF WITHOUT ANY HELP in a totally strange new foreign land in a foreign language that you don't even know at all, but the great advantage of our plan & the way our system works is that you can go down & live in a Home where you've already got lots of people who speak English, Americans, etc. And there where you can at least make yourself understood to your fellow countrymen, with them & along with them who have already learned the local language, you can learn it, whatever language it may be--Spanish or any other language in the World.
91. YOU CAN GO & LIVE IN A HOME & VERY QUICKLY PICK UP THE LOCAL LANGUAGE & all the simple things that you have to say from "good morning", "how are you", "thank you very much", "please", & so on & so on & so on! All of these things are usually very simple & you can pick up the simple little words of the necessities of the day.
92. SO DON'T BE AFRAID, BELOVED, TO LAUNCH OUT! You don't have to go straight out into the deep, you can launch out into the shallows where at least you can wade around ankle-deep amongst people you know & fellow-countrymen who speak your language though they be living in a Home in a foreign country, & learn it there.
93. IT'S LIKE I USED TO SAY ABOUT MOM'S SISTER & BROTHER-IN-LAW. They went to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to become Methodist missionaries, and while they spent two years in the Presbyterian language school trying to learn Brazilian, their four children who were out playing with the Brazilian kids picked it up & learned it faster than they did!
94. WHEN THEIR PARENTS WENT TO THE STORE to go shopping they'd have to take along one of their own children to interpret for them who never went one day to language school & never had any formal teaching at all but just played with the children & picked it up from them. So you'll find that that's almost the fastest way to learn it; you may not learn all the techniques & all the technical points & grammar & all that, but you'll pick it up just the way they speak it.
95. THAT'S THE WAY A LITTLE CHILD LEARNS IT. A little one-year-old doesn't go to language school & read books in order to learn the language you speak, he just learns it from you the way you talk it, that's all, & he learns how to speak it from you.
96. THAT'S THE WAY YOU CAN LEARN IT FROM THEM. If you go to the country & live with them, you'll learn it just like a little child learns it right form scratch just the way you speak it. Just think, a little child has to try to figures out what you're trying to say, & you say it to him & you point & you illustrate it & everything else & he finally understands what the word means.
97. OUR LITTLE DAVID HAS GOTTEN TO WHERE HE LIKES TO PLAY A NICE LITTLE GAME WITH US NOW. We're always asking him, "What's this?", "What's that?" & pointing to pictures, & he gives us the names of these different things. But then he'll come into our room & he switches around on us & asks us!
98. WE HAVE A WHOLE ARRAY OF YOUR LOVELY PICTURES HERE ON OUR WALLS & beside our bed on our bedside table--especially you lovely beautiful girls who send me those pretty nude pictures. I'm always sure to put them up, you can be sure of that! We before pointed to each one & told him who they were, so now he comes in & he points to each one & he expects us to give him the name! He reverses it, he's the teachers now, like "Who's this? Who's that? Who's this?" & we have to name them all for him! He laughs & thinks it's so funny that he's now the teacher, he knows he's pulling a fast one on us, getting us to recite!
99. SO IF A LITTLE CHILD LESS THAN TWO YEARS OF AGE CAN LEARN A LANGUAGE, for God's sake, you certainly ought to be able to learn a language, amen? Then you don't have to just stay behind in America & glean one soul every blue moon & go to all that trouble to try to rescue one little lost girl, but you can win them right & left!
100. BECAUSE THE PEOPLE IN MOST OF THESE HUNGRY POOR COUNTRIES ARE VERY RECEPTIVE, very responsive, very hungry, very friendly & really appreciate any little thing you do for them; the fact you're there to try to help them in any way you can & try to learn their language & love them, they're extremely responsive! So much better than the North Americans!
101. THESE NATIVE PEOPLE IN THESE POOR COUNTRIES, ESPECIALLY LATIN COUNTRIES, ARE REALLY REALLY FRIENDLY & hospitable & kind & receptive & responsive. Most of them are just wonderful people! Even if you have a struggle learning their language, they're so much easier to live with & to love & to enjoy their fellowship. They're such sweet cheerful happy people, they have such happy music, they love to dance & they love to live, they love life & love to love!
102. THEY HAVE A VERY SIMPLE CHILDLIKE FAITH IN GOD & EVEN IN THE BIBLE. They have little or no faith left in the church, the church has disillusioned & disappointed them & hasn't given them satisfaction, but they still have a simple faith in God & in Christ & the Bible & it's very very easy to lead them to Salvation!
103. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SHOW THEM TWO OR THREE LITTLE VERSES ON SALVATION right out of the Bible & they believe it right off the bat, & just ask them to pray a little prayer & ask Jesus into their heart & know that they're saved, show it to them in the Bible how they are saved & right now, boom boom boom, & they're saved! Just like that!
104. THEN THEY'RE HUNGRY AND WANT TO READ THE BIBLE AND THEY WANT TO READ THE MO LETTERS and they want to learn more and more an they just eat it up! They are just fascinated, they're just so thrilled they've at last found real real reality & real love & they've really come to know Jesus Christ personally!
105. IT'S JUST WONDERFUL, IT'S JUST THE EASIEST KIND OF A FIELD TO WORK IN where the people are so responsive & hungry just by the thousands! To me, Latin America & even some of the Southern European countries which are virtually all Latin countries, are the most needy fields where we have some of the fewest people & yet they're the hungriest & most receptive & responsive of any place in the World!
106. SO WHY DON'T YOU QUIT FIDDLING AROUND WITH TRYING TO JUST GO ON & ON & ON GLEANING ONE HERE, ONE THERE, a few little pieces of grain still left in the darkened corners of the field, when you can come out to these fields where there's light & tremendous harvest just waiting for you!
107. I'LL NEVER FORGET WHEN WE WERE PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT ONCE YEARS AGO when I was just a teenager with my mother for this young couple who had been called by the Lord to go to Africa. They wanted to go to Africa as missionaries but were afraid to go because they didn't know the country or the language or anything!
108. THEY WERE PRAYING ABOUT IT & THE LORD SAID, "THIS LAND WHICH YE CALL LIGHT, I CALL DARKNESS"--the United States! "But that land which ye call dark"--in other words the Dark Continent of Africa"--I call light!" So even Africa is lighter than America! There's more light & more faith, more belief in darkest Africa than there is in benighted & darkened-in-their-understanding America!
109. AND ACCORDING TO THAT VISION I HAD OF "MOCUMBA" (No.554), apparently there's going to be a real harvest now in Africa. We're beginning in Ghana & Nigeria & places like that which are former British colonies where most of them speak English & you can go right there & just speak your own language & go to work right away winning souls. There's already been a tremendous harvest & we've own hundreds there already.
110. I THINK THERE'S GOING TO BE A REAL LANDSLIDE, A REAL CONVERSION JUST LIKE MOCUMBA, in Africa now. I think it's probably going to reach the proportion of thousands there that are going to be swept into the Kingdom if you will be faithful & come & be willing to live under rather primitive conditions back in the jungle by a riverside, beat your clothes on a rock, eat your meals off the trees & pray over or boil the water when you drink it!
111. THEY SAY THERE THAT THEY DRINK WATER OUT OF THE SAME STREAM IN WHICH THEY WASH THEIR CLOTHES & everything else, so you just have to have a little faith or boil the water & trust the Lord & be willing to camp out & live under primitive conditions to win these precious little souls. They're just like children, very simple!
112. BUT I'D ADVISE YOU TO BOIL YOUR DRINKING WATER OR DRINK WINE IN ALMOST ANY POOR COUNTRY IN THE SOUTH!--And wash & cook your fresh fruit & vegetables thoroughly too!--And be sure you eat only clean meats thoroughly cooked also! Smell before you buy!--Your nose is a good tester! That's what it's for!
113. AND REMEMBER, THE SOONER YOU TAKE YOUR LITTLE CHILDREN TO THAT COUNTRY, THE QUICKER & EASIER THEY'LL LEARN THE LANGUAGE!--Just like they learned yours!--By hearing & necessity!--They'll learn it almost immediately if small, but as they become older it gets a bit less easy. So take'm now & let'm grow up with it! They'll love it!--And you'll love it too! You never dreamed it'd be so easy!
114. GBY!--AND HE WILL IF YOU'LL OBEY & GO! PTL!--Just please try to be sure you've got a couple thousand dollars in landing & locating money & plenty of pledged support if possible, & keep up a good Mail Ministry of Prayer Letters to home folks & friends for prayer & support, so you won't always have to be worried about money, & can devote your fulltime & energy to your mission--saving souls! PTL!--Amen?--Or get a job if you have to! Just please don't expect these poor peons to support you!--Take it from the rich North & share it with the poor South!--Amen?
115. AND THE SOONER YOU GO THE BETTER & EASIER IT WILL BE FOR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY! You'll get first pickin's of the housing, fields & harvests & you'll all learn the language easier.--And you'll be surer of getting safely out of the North before it falls to the bombs! Tomorrow may be too late! God bless & help you to go soon!--ILY!--Dad.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family